Risk

Risk arises through:

Intellectual property infringement

Product liability

Libel

Breach of contract

Whenever materials are prepared, copied, or displayed, or distributed,
there are both potential benefits and risks. Authors and producers
often focus on the benefits - use by the public, royalty payments
from publishers, shares in lucrative start up company - and fail
to adequately consider the risks that attend opportunities.

There are a number of risks, including copyright, trademark, patent
infringement; misappropriation of trade secrets or other proprietary
information; product liability; libel; breach of contract; tortious
interference; and ethics violations under Washington State's Ethics
in Public Service Act. While in any particular circumstance, the
risk may appear remote, the costs that arise, both in time and money,
are often substantial.

Developing software that can circumvent a copyright protection
measure in digital products such as CDs or video games risks violating
the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), even if the developer
is unaware of this potential use of his or her software or if it
has other uses besides circumventing the copyright protection. If
the other uses of this software are not substantial, it may be deemed
to violate the DMCA.